Heaven's Favorite
by DarkPaladin000
Summary: When the Mongols invaded his father's kingdom, Prince Jalal ad-Din was sure that they would be easily repelled. Now, with his army in tatters and on the run, he finds himself lost in a foreign land, only to be picked up by a group calling themselves Team Rocket and who use strange creatures they call Pokemon. Will he ever return to claim what is his? Or be forgotten forever?
1. The Battle of the Indus River

**Time: 1221 A.D. Place: Near the Indus River**

"Faster! Faster! They're almost on top of us!" came the order form Jalal ad-Din, earlier Crown Prince and now Sultan of the Khwarezmian Empire shouted to his troops.

For over three hundred miles, the Sultan and his army had been chased by the accursed Mongols on horseback, all the while fighting a desperate rear-guard action in order to try and lose their enemy in the mountains of the Hindu Kush.

They had not dared to stop and instead changed horses as remounts, as well as slept and ate in the saddle. Their adversaries, however, did the same and were far more skilled on horseback and with archery than they were.

It was turning to be all for naught though as it seemed the enemy was finally upon them.

With the Indus river flowing at their backs, the half-starved and bone-weary soldiers with nowhere to run turned around to make a desperate last stand against Genghis Khan and his army. After all, though they knew in their hearts they were outmatched, they also knew that it was either fight or die. And each and every single one of them knew that men can accomplish miraculous things when they know that their very lives are on the line. And so they fought.

They fought for three days with a fury that bordered on madness. They fought for their country, and for the millions of people these accursed Mongols had slain. Jalal ad-Din was not a terrible strategist, and placed his army into two flanks, but Genghis Khan, the so-called Flail of God and the Favorite of Heaven, sent a small group of men around the mountain in order to attack the Sultan's army from both directions.

For three days, the screech of arrows, and the screams of men and horses filled the air until it was apparent who was winning and it was not the beleaguered Sultan.

Desperate, Jalal ad-Din watched as the last of his bodyguard charged at the enemy, hoping to draw them off long enough so that he could escape.

Jalal ad-Din, even as he turned and dived for the Indus River, saw his bravest and most loyal soldiers give up their lives simply so that he, their last remaining hope, could live to fight another day, and perhaps, perchance, return and liberate the Khwarezmian Empire from Mongol Rule.

For now though, Jalal ad-Din realize that he would have to seek shelter somewhere while his strength recuperated. His goal in mind was the Delhi Sultanate. The Mongols, for all their might, had been unable to conquer India thanks to the hot and humid conditions that neither their bows nor horses could survive.

As Jalal ad-Din waded with his horse into the river along with his imperial guard, however, suddenly the Indus overflowed and he found himself torn from his guards.

"Retrieve the Sultan! He must live!" the head of his bodyguard called out.

Jalal ad-Din quickly found himself separated from his bodyguards and desperately trying to keep his horse from losing its wits. In another circumstance, he would have slain it and dived into the river, but he knew very well that without a horse, he would have no chance of escaping from the Mongols.

The current grew ever stronger, and then the entire world was washed away in a huge wave of water that obscured everything. His mount's reigns were torn from his hands.

Strangely enough, from beneath the water, the Khwarezmian Sultan heard something that sounded like a lion's roar.

And then there was darkness.

* * *

 **Time: ? Place: ?**

Jalal ad-Din coughed up water as he slowly came to awareness of where he was. He saw grass in front of him and it took a moment to register that the soil was wet. He turned around to see a small stream, which could not compare to the mighty Indus.

As he removed the water from his ears and climbed up the bank, taking off his boots, he tried to get his bearings.

He was in a small groove in a very beautiful and scenic forest. The sky was calm and tranquil. For a second he considered if he had died and had ascended to heaven, but quickly dismissed the idea.

For one, he was still in his war armor and old clothes, which, though they had been tailored for a prince of his rank, had been ruined with so much time of travel. Certainly he would have received new garments had he entered the afterlife?

Secondly, his entire body was still sore from the battle, and most important of all, he was aware of a severe pain from his stomach as he had clearly not eaten properly for several days.

He got up and took his bearings. If he wasn't dead… than he was most probably in India. He looked around at the trees and froze. Right there, in the treetops, there was a bird that looked just about as large as a horse. It had its eyes fixed on him.

Cautiously, Jalal ad-Din looked at his surroundings to see if he could find a weapon. He had a small dagger in his clothes, of course, but that was hardly a weapon fit for- aha! Right there, just five feet away from him, was his trusted bow and a quiver of arrows. And better yet, his curved sword.

Slowly, trying not to startle the bird, Jalal ad-Din reached for his bow and arrows when the thing suddenly let out a loud noise and thankfully, didn't press an attack but instead flew away. Jalal ad-Din collected his weapons and paused, waiting for an attack, but none came.

Following that, he followed the stream's course and saw a tree with a blue fruit hanging from it. Having never seen a fruit of that color before, he automatically assumed that it must have been poisoned, until a small bird unlike one had ever seen before flitted into its branches and instantly took several into its beak before flitting off again.

That _probably_ meant they were okay to eat, Jalal ad-Din thought and reached for several as his stomach growled even louder. On closer inspection, he could tell that they were probably more akin to berries than actual fruit. He tentatively tried one.

It didn't taste very good, but he had had nothing but cold jerky and yogurt for the past few weeks, so it was not unwelcome. The tree didn't yield much of the fruit, but enough so that he felt he couldn't eat more after a while and stowed away a meager reserve, hardly a few mouthfuls, in his clothing.

Just then, a shadow passed over the earth and Jalal ad-Din looked up in time to see… well, he had no word to describe what it was, but it was even larger than the earlier bird. It seemed to consist of a huge sphere that resembled a cat somewhat, and attached to the base was what looked like a wicker basket.

It landed not to far from him, and, curiosity overcoming his caution; he tried sneaking towards it, though stealth had never been one of his strong points. He hid in a bush that should have shielded him from view.

From the wicker basket two of the strangest looking people Jalal ad-Din had ever seen had gotten out. Both of them were wearing clothes that were mostly white except for a symbol in red that was present across their chests. One of them looked to be a man and somehow had _blue_ hair of all thins, while the other one who he guessed was a woman had long violet hair that went beyond her waist.

He scratched his head. He had heard of hair the color of the golden sun before, but never blue or violet!

Then again, if he truly was in India, he had heard strange tales about the place. About rivers that flowed with honey and men with backwards feet on… and there had been that huge bird earlier. Was such hair color this common within these lands?

It took his eyes a moment to notice what looked like a small cat which resembled the huge sphere he had seen. It opened its mouth, and began making noises. From the way that the two humans looked at it, Jalal ad-Din could only surmise that they could somehow _talk_ to it.

How absurd.

The Sultan weighed his options. He was in a foreign land with naught but a few weapons and none of his imperial bodyguard. These two were the first humans he had seen, but from what he could hear, they did not speak any language that he did.

He considered his options. He could attack them, but he was uncertain of what powers or weapons they possessed. After all, they had just disembarked from what was very much a flying machine.

So, he decided to try a passive approach. He kept his weapons but placed them far from his hands and held them up to let them know that they were empty.

He walked out of his vantage point but made the mistake of stepping on a twig.

The small creature's ears twitched and it turned around along with the two humans.

Jalal ad-Din held his hands up and tried to look as nonthreatening as possible. In a slow tone, he said, "Good evening, friends. I am Jalal ad-Din, Sultan of the Empire of Khwarezmia. Would you mind telling me where I am?"

The two humans and the creature stared at him.

The man, in his own language that sounded like gibberish to the Sultan, said, "What's this guy doing, Jessie?"

"I don't know James," the woman replied. "But look at his clothes… and is that an actual bow on his back?"

Jalal ad-Din didn't understand this, and so tried speaking in Persian instead. From the looks on these people's faces, he could tell that that wasn't going through either.

"What's he saying?" Meowth asked. "I mean, it isn't just me, right? You guys can't understand a word either?"

"Not a word," Jessie repeated.

"Hold on," James said. He pulled out a small cylinder about the size of a Pokedex. "This was supposed to be a universal translation device made by Team Rocket's Science division to allow people to talk to Pokemon?"

"Really?" Meowth asked with exaggerated surprise. "They wanted to talk to Pokemon? Oh, it isn't like they always had a special one which could do that anyway and tell them what Pokemon said, right?" he said sarcastically.

"Regardless, this thing apparently focuses more on brainwaves and behavioral patters than actual sounds," James said. "They gave the project up, but I managed to land this prototype."

Jessie raised an eyebrow. "And how exactly did you come across this?"

James blushed slightly. "Don't fret on the details! Let's see if it works!" He turned it on and kept it on the ground, and the screen on top started displaying: ANALYZING LANGUAGE. PLEASE REMAIN PATIENT.

Jalal ad-Din of course, hadn't understood any of this and didn't get why they had kept a small black machine with a light emitting from it on the ground. As such, he kept switching languages, hoping that something would register, to no avail.

With that option gone, he then resorted to using basic phrases and words that he was sure that most people would have heard… to get no reaction at all.

He then at last resorted to trying to mime things out. He was sure it would have looked comical, but had gotten no results.

Jessie and James, similarly, were at a complete loss. But then, thankfully, the translator seemed to have finished and was now displaying the message: PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS COMPLETE. ATTEMPTING INITIAL TRANSLATION.

"Do you understand anything of what I'm saying?" Jalal ad-Din finally said exasperatedly.

A noise came out from the machine, and it relayed what he had said, except in English.

"It works!" James said.

This time, the machine translated this for Jalal ad-Din who immediately widened his eyes as he noticed the sound seemed to be coming from the cylinder. He crouched on the ground and took the device, wondering who it was that was speaking from inside.

"Hey! That thing is expensive!" James said.

Jalal ad-Din heard this and dropped the device with a sneer. "Expensive? Ha, I will let you two know, that I, Sultan of Khwarezm, ruled an empire with more jewels and gold than you could have spent a dozen lifetimes to count."

Then, it occurred to him that he might have made a fatal mistake. After all, what if these people were thieves? They did not seem to be too dangerous, but there could be more of them nearby. Not to mention that it was all mostly bluster… he hardly had anything left with him now.

"Did I hear what he said properly?" Jessie asked.

"He's calling himself a Sultan of some place, Crazemeh or something," James said. "Do you think he might've hit his head on something too hard?"

Their conversation continue for over half an hour as the translating software got better at its job. There were still some glitches, but it was functioning approximately enough for Jessie and James to understand what their guest was saying.

Similarly, Jalal ad-Din got to know a little bit more about these two and that Pokemon. Apparently, the black cylinder was some sort of contraption that allowed anyone to speak to anyone in any language. He had heard of magic before, but this was a first for him.

As their conversations continued, Jalal ad-Din figured out that he was in some place called 'Can-toe.' When he asked if it was a part of India, or if they had heard of the Delhi Sultanate, or even the Himalayan mountains, the responses were all in the negative.

From their names, James and Jessie… well, the name James sounded distinctively Christian… but Christians in India? Unless these people were a band of extremely intrepid missionaries… but that didn't seem likely. They carried no crosses or holy books. So was he in Russia then? Or did he somehow wash up on the shores of some far away country like Italy? He for one had never heard of the name 'Can-toh.'

Instantly though, despite the communications difficulties, he could tell that these two were skeptical about his story, and especially about his claim to be Sultan of Khwarezm. He couldn't honestly blame them, after all, he had none of his royal entourage with him.

That reminded him of the story of Toghrul, khan of the Kerait Empire. He had been defeated by Genghis Khan in battle, and had become separated from his guards as he tracked his way up towards the territory of the Naiman Empire in order to enlist their aid. On his way, he was found, alone, by a Naiman Scout who had refused to believe the khan's story and assumed he was talking to a lone madman who had delusions that he was a khan.

And so, Toghrul, an emperor who had once wielded power and authority over Genghis Khan himself, had been beheaded by a Naiman foot soldier, who promptly afterwards began removing all the valuables from the deceased khan's body.

Jalal ad-Din shuddered as he imagined his head falling from his shoulders. Falling in the glory of battle was one thing, but to die here, in a foreign land, where he would be unrecognized, was almost instantly worse.

But, despite his paranoia, he had to admit that these two didn't look too dangerous. They carried no weapons he could discern… not even the man named James, and that surprised him. He had seen a huge bird, and that probably meant such creatures were common. Then shouldn't they have carried some form of protection? Or were those… well, apparently they were called Pokemon safe and docile?

Not to mention Jalal ad-Din couldn't help but notice that they stared at his weapons with interest and fascination, and it didn't simply seem to be because they belonged to a Sultan's. No, it was almost as if they hadn't seen a sword or bow before… but that sounded ridiculous.

James then asked once, "Would you mind if I were to take a look at your bow? Just for a second?"

Jalal ad-Din considered the request. He was wary of giving away his weapon, especially one so valuable, but then again, it wasn't like he was going to give him his arrows, and he still had a sword. And most tellingly, the man didn't seem very muscular and probably couldn't use it.

Hesitantly, he took it and handed it to James. James took out some more… well, Jalal ad-Din had no name for what they were, but they seemed to be instruments of some sort and handed back the bow in less than a minute.

After that, James beckoned to his two companions and said in a low voice so that the translator would not pick it up, "That bow is adorned with real gold and silver! Worth more than four year's of my own salary!"

Jessie raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure?"

"To be more sure I'd need to visit a goldsmith or antique specialist," James said. "But I'm as sure as I could be under the circumstances."

"Well then, we might just go ahead for taking it," Meowth whispered. The translator, for some reason, didn't translate Meowth's words, but he considered it an appropriate precaution anyways.

"And not just that," James said. "That armor that he's wearing… if that's real, and I think it is, it be worth more than we could earn on our Grunt salaries in four decades. Not to mention don't even get me started on the sword…"

The three of them knew that they were going to do something about this, but agreed to postpone it for later, perhaps when the man had gone to sleep.

Jalal ad-Din found their conversation strange though he didn't understand the words. He also found it uncanny that the woman Jessie spoke so freely to James. He wasn't able to tell what their relationship was, they had mentioned they had been partners but it didn't seem like they were married, more like they had been assigned to do something together.

While that was strange, even stranger still was the animal that kept talking. He couldn't understand it as the machine gave no translation, but it was apparent that the other two talked to it like it was an equal.

Completely baffling.

Team Rocket, on the other hand, were busy wondering how best to get their guest to part with his treasures. He looked dangerous though, and it was clear that those weapons were not just decorations…

Their thoughts were interrupted by a loud noise- the man's stomach growling. They laughed and James said, "Well, we're just getting dinner ready. Do join us."

"I see," Jalal ad-Din said. "Well, thank you, friends." He watched with curiosity as they somehow built a fire- all without wood using yet some other instrument he had never seen before.

Jalal ad-Din may have been a Sultan, but even a Sultan was lucky if he could get a meal in a battle like the one he'd fought. All of his meals had been cold and forced down… and now, a warm meal was more than welcome.

The food was good and tasty, though he was unable to identify the ingredients. After his stomach was full, exhaustion at the last few day's ride overtook him and his eyes began drooping heavily. He took off his armor and put his bow to the side, but kept his sword with him. Better to be careful…

'Better to be careful' was what Meowth thought as he switched off the translator after he was sure the guy was asleep. Then again, Meowth couldn't understand what was wrong with humans. They somehow made a translator to translate what Pokemon said, and yet it couldn't translate Meowth's words for some reason even though they were in English. Team Rocket's Science division certainly had some work to do. "So, what're going to do abut him?"

"Isn't it obvious? Take his stuff and sell it," James said with glee.

"Uh-huh. Imagine what we could buy…" Jessie said, her eyes misty as her thoughts trailed off in thoughts of what comforts she could purchase.

Meowth shook his head. In all truth, it was amazing to him how narrow-minded these two other idiots were. "Are you out of your heads? Take his stuff? Didn't you hear what he said? He's the Sultan of some kingdom!"

"Oh, he's probably just crazy," Jessie said with a dismissive sigh. "You know, I've heard stories like that, about people who are actors and then get too into their roles…"

"But his weapons are real," James suddenly realized. "And that bow was the real thing. Not to mention he is talking in a foreign language. And he doesn't seem to be joking…"

"If he's crazy he'll be serious about it of course," Jessie said dismissively.

"You two don't get it do you!" Meowth said, almost angrily enough to have woken up the Sultan if he hadn't been too tired. "Let's say there's even a point one percent chance the guy's tellin' the truth…. Think about it! He's from some place where bows and arrows are considered to be weapons. And think about 'da bombs and missiles we have… and what did he say about his home country?"

"He said it had mountains of jewels," James said with a grin.

"And even if that is an exaggeration, I don't doubt that he'll be rich. Plus, Team Rocket has had trouble in Kanto lately, so a new region as our base wouldn't be bad to have," Jessie said.

"So what do we do?" James asked.

"Simple. We take 'da guy to our Team Rocket Base. And even if he's lying, we'll still have gotten his expensive armor and bows to sell," Meowth said.

The other two agreed with the plan and so they made a call to a nearby Team Rocket Base before turning in for the night.

* * *

Glossary/Some Background Information: You don't need to know too much about history, and some things will be explained, but I thought it'd be nice to have a short summary available:

Mongols: A tribe of nomadic horsemen that, under the rule of Genghis Khan, set out to conquer the world and established a dynasty, that, though short lived, was the largest ever in human history. They relied on superior archery and a large number of horses as well as superior organization and communication skills. To give you an idea, at the battle described in this chapter, the Mongols had thirty thousand soldiers while Jalal ad-Din had around fifty thousand.

Khwarezm: A very large empire that bordered to the west of the Mongol's. The story goes that a trade caravan sent by Genghis Khan was taken and slaughtered by the Shah of Khwarezm's uncle. Another embassy sent to the Shah was humiliated and one of them was killed. The Mongols declared war and subsequently destroyed the empire, even the Mongols were greatly outnumbered, with the Shah forced to flee for his Mongols said that they wouldn't have attacked if the Shah hadn't insulted them, but to be fair, the Mongols were notorious for turning on their treaties and would have probably attacked later anyway.

Jalal ad-Din: Crown Prince of Khwarezm, whose father, the Shah Muhammad II insulted the Mongols. Later, Jalal ad-Din became the Sultan and led a last-ditch effort with soldiers from current-day Afghanistan to try and liberate Khwarezm, which failed.

Khan: Word literally means ruler.

Kerait Empire: A powerful steppe tribe. Later absorbed by Genghis Khan into his own empire.

Toghrul: Khan of the Kerait Empire. He was earlier Genghis Khan's adoptive father and Genghis Khan his vassal, though eventually the two went to war with each other.

Naiman: Another powerful steppe tribe, which was also defeated and assimilated by Genghis Khan.

 **A/N: Thanks for reading! Like I've said, you don't need to know much about history but I will be throwing some pieces in.**

 **Also, I'd like to stay as close to fact as I can, but I have made up several things, after all, we don't know a lot about stuff that happened them, but I will try to be reasonable in what I say.**

 **This a more of a testing-the-water fanfic. I'll see whether or not I update based on several other things.**

 **Do please review with your thoughts.**


	2. Giovanni of Team Rocket

_"Our empire is like an ocean, while yours is but a handful of sand. How can we fear you?"- Emperor of the Jurchen Dynasty to Genghis Khan in response to the latter's declaration of war._

 _Then again, the Jurchen controlled most of northern China and were later soundly defeated despite the fact that they numbered around fifty million while the Mongols couldn't have been more numerous than one million in total._

The next morning came quickly. Normally Jalal ad-Din would have woken up first, but his extreme exhaustion it was well after Team Rocket had woken up that his eyes first fluttered open.

Breakfast was being prepared. Strangely, it was a warm meal like last night made on a similar flame.

While getting ready, Jalal ad-Din noticed several things. These two had begun treated him far more respectfully for some reason. However, just something about their expressions told him that there was more to this than met the eye.

Also, they seemed to be getting packed to go somewhere.

"We wanted to say something," James had said. "You see, we think that it is best to take you to our boss, Giovanni. We're heading back to our base, and well… you could meet him and get some more help."

Jalal ad-Din realized his only other option was to wander the forests alone. "You have not told me this, but, what exactly is Team Rocket?" he asked. "I'm curious also as to what it is exactly that you two do. You seem to carry a lot of metals… are you blacksmiths of a sort?" Truth be told, they didn't look to be part of any profession that he would recognize. They carried lot of glassware and strange items, so were they scouts or philosophers, or perhaps alchemists? From they way they talked though, it seemed like they were soldiers. But they didn't carry any weapons…

"Well, we're sort of low-level grunts," James said. "We do whatever our boss tells us to do."

"Oh," the Sultan replied. "So, this Giovanni… will he wish to speak to me?"

"We can't be sure, but we would guess," Jessie said. "We'll take you to our base, where we can have our doctors look after your wounds and we'll explain to him who you are."

That was the best that could be hoped for in this circumstance, Jalal ad-Din figured.

It didn't take long to convince him as he didn't see many other options, but the problem was getting him on the hot air balloon.

Jalal ad-Din had heard of flying carpets and the like, but this seemed to be different and far more risky than them.

He asked or rather nearly demanded that they take a different route on land, but it was pointed out that it was far too risky and would take too long.

It took quite a bit of convincing to get Jalal ad-Din to get on the hot air balloon. Finally though, he agreed, and clung to the sides of the basket for dear life, uttering prayers asking to be safely delivered to his destination.

They (miraculously, in Jalal ad-Din's opinion) managed to make it to the Team Rocket base.

Once Jalal ad-Din had calmed down, he could notice a few things. The base was well-hidden away from prying eyes and was extremely large for the very few number of people living in there.

Also, the color differences in uniform were very apparent. The majority of members there were wearing black uniforms in contrast to Jessie and James' white ones. This meant that James and Jessie were somewhat higher in rank than the common crowd, or in some other division.

Jalal ad-Din was first sent to their physicians, a group of people who were characterized by wearing unmarked white coats.

Now, this was where things started to get uncomfortable. Back in Khwarezm, a physician would not have dared touch a royal like him without permission and yet these people had the nerve! Not to mention they were far more invasive and used instruments he had never seen before. He was punctured by some needles, but to his surprise, these were not for venesection. Also, the physicians used no incantations and instead gave him some brightly colored candies to take.

Despite his hostility, the Sultan found himself feeling better after that and was allowed to take a bath. A separate area was given to him, which meant that they did respect him, perhaps the incident with the physicians had been some misunderstanding between cultures?

After washing himself in some strange machine that simulated rainwater, he found his old clothes, though apparently washed and repaired with a fabric that was oddly like silk. The gold and other embroideries had been left intact. He had probably not been given a new set of clothes as these people wore nothing that he would've liked to wear, he guessed.

Even more amazing that all of this, however, were the creatures he had seen. There were in all manner of shapes and colors. One he recognized to be like a small giraffe until its tail of all things began barking at him. Some of them were carried in cages while a few walked alongside the humans who paid no extra attention to them at all.

Obviously this was supposed to be normal.

He had a small black device- which he was told was a more efficient translator- attached to his collar. He was then taken by Jessie and James to see their leader.

The leader, Giovanni, was incomparable to any other leader since he wore nothing that was similar to any rulers he had seen or to the people he had seen in this base. He had a large cat perched in his lap and a stern gaze.

"I've heard interesting things about you… ah, Sultan Jalal ad-Din, though you must forgive me for doubting its truthfulness. I have seen many a strange things, but one so strange? You speak of another country- no, a continent, beyond our reach?" Giovanni asked. He didn't tell the Sultan that his scientists had analyzed his clothes and weapons and had determined that they were, not, as a matter of fact props but real.

"I can understand your skepticism, ah, Giovanni," Jalal ad-Din said as the machine worked. "But I do tell the truth."

Giovanni said, "Talk is cheap." He pulled out a map, one of a variety that Jalal ad-Din had not seen before. It showed the outline of a huge continent and in no way resembled any that he had seen before. "My people have charted maps for many years. Kanto covers over one and half million square miles in area. We have also been to the neighboring continents of Kalos, Hoenn, Johto, and the like. We have not seen anything you have described for over one thousand miles."

Jalal ad-Din was speechless. Unless this man was lying, and he had no reason to as far as he could tell, his home was nowhere for several thousands of miles. "Excuse me for a minute, but the areas and distances you are talking about… how could you possibly cover them?"

Giovanni said, "By ships and aircraft, of course."

And of course, then it hit Jalal ad-Din. Their flying machines would allow them to cross any ocean, any river or mountain ranges at a speed that even the Mongols would have found to border on the supernatural. And he had seen even more in this base in addition to what was apparently called a hot air balloon.

"In that case, how did I get here?" the Sultan of Khwarezm asked.

"We can try to find out, but that's rather difficult," Giovanni said. "But enough on that. I'm more curious regarding _you_. We have never heard of the places that you've described, and while my minions have told me, but I would of course, prefer to hear it from you."

For the next two hours, Giovanni proved a receptive audience as Jalal ad-Din described his country in detail.

"Khwarezm was a smaller empire," Jalal ad-Din began. "But it was consolidated during my father's rule to give rise to something far larger. To give you an idea, we have in total around, or rather had," he added bitterly, "around four hundred thousand soldiers."

Giovanni looked sincerely surprised at this. "Are you certain? Four hundred thousand?" It was clear that he did not believe this fact, as it was well known that the population of Kanto in total was hardly more than two million people. Team Rocket, despite claiming to be large, only had around twenty thousand members. If four hundred thousand people were in the army, it meant that many more must have been their families, people tilling the land, etc.

"Yes," Jalal ad-Din said. Unknown to him, the room and the chair he was sitting in were both bugged electronically. His heart and breathing rate, as well as his skin temperature and tone of voice were all being recorded and analyzed through lie-detecting software. It would confirm that he was telling the truth.

"My father was a just ruler, if not a bit… firm in some respects," Jalal ad-Din said. He personally thought far worse of his father's rule and blamed him squarely for all that had befallen them, but now that his father was gone, it seemed off to speak ill of him, especially to a stranger. "The main problem with our rule was the Queen Mother, or my grandmother. In truth, she wanted to rule and constantly bullied my father and tried wresting control form him. Due to that, our kingdom was divided. Even worse, most of our soldiers were actually mercenaries and so high taxes were needed to pay them off."

One day, news came that the Jurchen Dynasty had been overthrown by a tribe of nomadic horseman called the Mongols under Genghis Khan. They signed a treaty with my father for trade relations between us. When they sent their first trade mission, however, my father's uncle, the Governor of Otrar, attacked them and took their goods. Following that, an embassy was sent to my father demanding that he turn over his uncle, but he killed one of them and sent the other two back after shaving them. War followed."

The later discussion turned into details of the war, which honestly speaking Giovanni understood very little as he had no clue what the place looked like. Jalal ad-Din tried to help by drawing a very rough map, which Giovanni made a note to ask more about.

"What weapons did these… ah, Mongols use?" Giovanni asked.

"Bows and arrows, and swords, and spears, some javelins…" Jalal ad-Din trailed off. Why was that a question?

"Ah, nothing more advanced?" Giovanni asked.

"Well of course they took our cities using siege engines, using trebuchets and cloud ladders," Jalal ad-Din said and described them a bit.

"And, from what you seem to say, no aircraft?" Giovanni asked.

"Oh no, nothing like the flying machines you have. If you wanted to go fast, you'd at most be able to use several horses for remounts," Jalal ad-Din said.

"Interesting…" Giovanni said. "And what about Pokemon?"

"Do you mean those creatures that you have in cages?" Jalal ad-Din asked, taking a look at the huge cat-like creature next to Giovanni. "No, nothing like that."

Giovanni didn't show it, but he was smiling broadly inside. A new continent, much larger than Kanto from the looks of it, with a far larger population, and no weapons worth using.

He could see it now, him, the emperor of a huge dynasty that would encompass millions of people and let Team Rocket gain wealth like they had never seen before, if the Sultan was to be believed.

The only problem, was, of course, on how to get back there.

* * *

Glossary

Jurched: An empire established mainly by nomadic people who ruled over most of northern China and were overthrown by the Mongols.

Trebuchets: A type of machine for slinging large boulders.

 **A/N: Thanks for reading, do please review if you liked.**

 **Also, based on what I've seen from the anime I'm assuming that the population of of Kanto and the other regions is rather small and sparsely populated.**


	3. His First Pokemon

_"Their soldiers were more numerous than ants or locusts, more numerous than the sand of desert or the drops of rain," - a Persian chronicler describing the Mongols._

The Sultan's meeting with Giovanni ended shortly after that. He was told that these people who called themselves …Team Rocket? (He couldn't make heads or tails of that name. What did it mean? His translator didn't give an equivalent for the word that he could understand) were trying everything within their powers to send him back. After he had told given them an approximate location of where he had ended up, they had sent what amounted to a scouting party to check out the river.

In the meantime though, Jalal ad-Din was Team Rocket's 'guest', though he knew in his heart that this actually meant that he was but a virtual prisoner. Guests could leave when they wanted, he could not.

Be as that was, they did try to make him feel comfortable, or at least, as far as he could tell, they tried to, but he personally felt that these people did not accord him the respect a monarch of his rank should carry… though once again that may have simply been a difference in customs, he mused.

He was allowed to wander almost anywhere he wanted within the base. Jessie and James had been assigned as his personal guides to accompany him and see to his needs.

Wherever he went, the other members of Team Rocket seemed to try and ignore him as best as he could, rather than bowing in respect to him as he was accustomed to. Some even had the nerve to point at him and whisper things hurriedly when he thought that he wasn't looking!

Despite these things though, he could not deny that it was, at the very least, peaceful compared to repeated warfare. He was however, not idle. He tried to glean as much information as he could from these people, especially regarding these things that they called Pokemon.

Truth be told, there was something that was even more puzzling to him than mystical creatures: these people's religion.

Or rather, the apparent complete and total lack of one as far as he could tell.

There were no designated places of worship or any gatherings for any reason aside from military purposes. He could see no idols, no temples, no altars, or any holy images of any faith that he recognized. The only thing that seemed to muster a zeal that closely resembled it was how they treated their Pokemon, which made him wonder whether they worshiped them, but on the other hand they did imprison them, so that didn't seem very likely.

He considered asking, but then reconsidered when he realized how protective and defensive people tended to be about their spiritual beliefs. He would let it lie for now.

* * *

Currently, Jalal ad-Din was sleeping, which left Jessie, James, and Meowth perfectly free to sit at the food court, eating whatever it was that they fed to grunts, which frankly in their opinion in no way constituted 'food' in any proper terms.

"I just can't take this anymore," Meowth said. "Da Boss has made us babysit that guy, and he keeps goin' around and ordering us around and looking down on us like he's the king of some place."

"Technically he is," Jessie said, sipping on something that tasted remarkably like sewer water. "But instead of getting even with the twerps and getting Pikachu, we're sitting here rotting in a Team Rocket base! I mean, we're field agents! It's been so long since we've been shocked by Pikachu I'm having trouble sleeping without it."

"I heard that they're electrocuting people in the human labs right now," Meowth said. "You could try that." This got him a dirty look from Jessie.

"That's not even the worst part," James said. "The scouting teams have reported that there's nothing- nothing at all where we found him. The Boss isn't really happy about that."

Their moping would have usually continued for several more minutes, but they were interrupted as a scientist, and one they recognized, sat down next to them.

Lucy was a short, young, perky, and talented researcher, which of course begged the question as to why anyone with those qualities would want to join Team Rocket. Jessie rather detested her and was sure there was some deep dark secret behind it…one that she was determined to find out eventually.

"Hello there," she said in a high-pitched voice that made Meowth wince. "How're things going?"

"Fine enough," Jessie snorted out.

Lucy either didn't care about Jessie's cold attitude or chose to ignore it. "So, how's our guest doing?"

"Much better than we are," James remarked.

"Okay, anyway," Lucy said, deciding to cut straight to the chase. "I wanted to do some kind of, well, it is an experiment really on our guest. So, you know how Pokemon respond to human commands?"

"Pokemon respond to human commands?" Jessie said with mock surprise. "So this is what comes out of all the money funneled into your department?"

Lucy frowned. "That was just said for exposition. What I was saying- before I was rudely interrupted- was that it has always been a mystery as to why and how Pokemon can understand human languages even though Pokemon themselves speak some other language. Even wild Pokemon who have never seen humans before, or those which have just hatched out of eggs, seem to be able to communicate perfectly with humans."

James scratched his chin. "It does sound rather odd, now that you think about it, but isn't it the Pokeball technology that allows for easier communication?"

"That's true, but that only partly explains it," Lucy said. "Even in old times, there are records of people finding Pokemon in the forests or jungles and using them and these captured Pokemon would understand them. So how? How is that a Pokemon, even if it is as stupid as a Rhyhorn, understand our language so perfectly? So, I wanted to give the, um, I think it was Suldan- no, Sultan a Pokemon and have him try and order it around in his own native language. I want to see if it would respond to what he said."

"Well, though luck," Jessie said even though James and Meowth seemed to be mildy interested themselves. "He's under our care, and we refuse."

Lucy raised an eyebrow. "Well- this is kind of awkward, I wasn't here to ask for _permission_. I already asked the Boss and he's approved it. I just wanted to let you guys know that the Boss wanted one of you to explain in more detail what Pokemon are and ask him to cooperate. You can use some of the basic training manuals that we have." She then handed Jessie a letter, who furiously read it to realize that what Lucy was saying was true. Lucy left after that, leaving Jessie fuming.

James and Meowth knew better than to comment.

* * *

James was in a bad mood as he carried the Sultan's lunch to his room. For one, the Sultan was getting to dine on the best food Team Rocket had to offer, straight from Giovanni's own larder, while James and the rest were forced to eat Grunt 'food.' To add insult to injury, the Sultan looked at the delicacies piled before him as if he was disappointed by something.

And of course, to cap it all off, Jessie and Meowth had dumped the latest task on him while they were out goofing off.

James knocked before entering.

"Um, well, before you eat, there is something we need to talk about," James said. "You know about Pokemon, right? Well, we were thinking about giving you one."

The next ten minutes were spent with James rather awkwardly trying to explain what Pokemon were and how they were used. Once Jalal ad-Din had finished his meal, James then went and turned on some basic training videos. The Sultan was not yet very used to television and had freaked out completely when he saw people trapped in what looked like some kind of mirror, but he had sort of become used to it.

The Sultan watched in fascination as the secrets of this world were and of these creatures called Pokemon. They seemed like animals, only more intelligent, and they far more complicated than he had though earlier. There were apparently different moves, abilities, and something called types that they had.

Before he knew it, it was already time for dinner and he had barely, it seemed, scratched the surface.

The next morning, he was taken to a training area. James and Jessie very quickly got rid of the rather annoying other people who were regulars and were training there, who were replaced by a few scientists who wanted to observe.

Needless to say, the whole arena was bugged and Giovanni himself was probably watching either now or would later on.

"Here's a Pokemon they chose out for you," Jessie said.

Jalal ad-Din took a moment to admire his reflection in the polished sphere. As he had seen in the video, he released it and out of such a small thing emerged a creature that was bigger than he was. It looked like a green overgrown serpent with eyes like a dragonfly's and it let out a high-pitched screech.

It was a Pokemon he had seen in that video earlier last night. It had been called-

"A Flygon!" Jessie said. She was sitting on the sidelines along with the rest of the spectators. "I got an Ekans as my first Pokemon! And he gets something as rare as a Flygon?"

"Boss insisted," Lucy said. "That Flygon was raised from a Trapinch in total isolation. We kept it in a room where we would send in other Pokemon that had never met people. It hasn't seen a human until it was released right now."

"That's Pokemon cruelty, right there," James said.

Lucy raised an eyebrow. "Pokemon cruelty? In Team Rocket? Are you telling me that _you've_ never hurt one before?"

"Oh, well stealing and selling them is a different matter," James said. "But what you people do, oh wow, now subjecting them to those things is just so unnecessary."

The Flygon took in its surroundings and looked at Jalal ad-Din.

From the other end of the room, a Pokemon was released. It was a Jolteon, and it looked wild and its mouth was foaming.

"Now, you just have to fight that!" Lucy said to the Sultan. She then took out a remote and disabled his translator.

Jalal ad-Din was unsure of what to do. It had seemed very simple in the video, but for one, this Flygon was not behaving like a tame animal, rather it was squirming and darting its eyes left and right until it finally fixed them on its opponent.

Jalal ad-Din tried remembering one of the commands that he had heard, and so, said, "Flygon! Dragonbreath!"

This was said in his own language, but the Flygon instinctively unleashed a stream of hot breath at its opponent, who in turn, shot a Thunderbolt that was completely ineffective.

Jalal ad-Din scratched his chin as the Flygon looked towards him expecting another command. This was not bad, not bad at all for someone who had been raised giving orders to other people. He then said, "Use Sandstorm!"

A gust of wind and dust kicked up around the room by the Flygon's wings and surrounded the Jolteon, but didn't seem to do anything.

"Um…" the Sultan muttered. He didn't remember another attack, and this one wasn't doing any damage. "Uh, just finish it off!"

The Flygon looked at him with a quizzical expression. Apparently, this didn't make much sense.

"Uh, smack it with your tail then!" Jalal ad-Din said.

That command seemed to register something, and the Flygon's tail glowed white as it brought it down upon the Jolteon. The Joltean then began biting the Flygon.

"He's using a Steel move against an Electric type," James said.

"He probably doesn't know that much yet," Lucy said. "But this is interesting. That Flygon is quite docile… then again we didn't exactly torture it, just kept it alone and yet it still obeys his every command in whatever language he speaks."

"How come I can't hear it then?" Meowth asked.

Lucy shrugged. "I don't know. Why can you speak human and yet no other Pokemon we have can? It's probably just something wrong with your brain."

Meowth unfurled his claws. "There might be something wrong with your face if you keep talking like that."

"Meowth, hush," Jesssie said.

Jalal ad-Din had decided to resort to ordering his Flygon to stay in the air while it rapidly barraged its opponent with a string of Dragonbreaths until it finally fainted. The Flygon then spread its wings and let out a victorious screech.

"Not bad," James said. "So, what now?"

"What happens now is that he'll have to go back and explore where you found him," Lucy said. "And it will be far faster if he learned how to ride that thing."

 **A/N: Thanks for reading and do review if you liked!**


End file.
